UMD Project Management SymposiumMay 7-8, 2020 Slide 1

Donna McCullough2020 Project Management Symposium

COACHING FOR SUCCESS

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Partner & PM Leader, US FederalIBM Global Business Services

Partnering with Federal agencies to solve their toughest challenges for over 25 years

Currently lead a team of 250 PMs

PMI Certified PMP®

IBM Certified Senior Complex Program Manager

Scaled Agile Certified - SAFe 4 Government

IBM Certified Blue Core Coach

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Coaching vs. Traditional Managing

The Paradigm Shift

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Coaching is helping people unlock their

potential to maximize their own

performance

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Successful coaching relies on key

concepts that empower your

teams to succeed

Key Coaching Concepts:

• Listening rather than speaking.

• Asking rather than telling.

• Empowering rather than directing.

• Focusing on future possibilities rather than past mistakes.

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Listening rather than speaking

How can we demonstrate

effective listening?

Practice Exercise: Pick a partner and practice effective listening. Say a sentence, then your partner has to respond using the last word of your sentence as the first word of their sentence. Go back and forth for a few minutes.

• Keep focus on the conversation

• Limit distractions like phone and email

• Practice reflective listening

• Be open minded and not judgmental

• Be careful not to interrupt

• Ask powerful questions

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Asking rather than telling

What defines a powerful question?

• Open-ended

• Clear

• Concise

• Direct

• Often starts with “what” or “how”, not “why”

• Comes from a place of curiosity

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Is this a powerful question?

What would you do if there was no chance you would fail?

Have you done a demo of the technology?

Do you think it is possible that your client doesn’t understand the technology in which case it might not be that they don’t want to but more of an issue understanding the value?

What assumptions are you making?

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GROW

GoalWhat do you want to discuss?

RealityWhere are you now?

OptionsWhat could you do?

Will: What will you do?

Introducing the GROW Model The GROW coaching model helps team

members take responsibility for their work and

career.

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Empowering rather than directing

Command and control style management hinders growth and

performance

• Growth happens when people solve problems vs. being told what to do.

• Performance improves by unleashingpotential vs. being put in a box.

• Empowering encourages self-awareness and ownership

• Requires trust and accountability

• Recognition of accomplishments is key to motivation and performance

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Coaching is successful when we:

Practice Active ListeningAsk Powerful QuestionsEncourage Ownership

Empower OthersRecognize Success

Reference: Coaching for Performance, 4th Edition by John Whitmore.

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Questions